Upon reading this report, one cannot escape the conclusion that Nadine Dorries has had to admit to being a liar in order to avoid a charge of monetary corruption.

Further, the evidence that ‘clears’ Dorries comes to us from that same liar.

It’s not too much detail (come on, Iain, you can do this), so let me walk you through the highlights with the promise of a comedy payoff:

1. Nadine Dorries had to explain the conflict between (a) her claim to the authorities/Commissioner that her constituency home was her second home, and (b) the many entries on her blog portraying her constituency home as her main home.

To do this, she had to say that he had lied her constituents on this point and many others, and the relevant passage includes a quote that is going to haunt Nadine Dorries for a long time to come:

Basically, Dorries says she sought to reassure her constituents about her commitment to Mid Bedfordshire by knowingly misleading them about how much time she spent there. But Dorries even had the audacity to object to the Commissioner arriving at this same conclusion. She wanted this passage removed or amended:

167. Ms Dorries’ evidence to me was also inconsistent with statements she had previously made on her weblog and in the press, where she seemed to go out of her way to emphasise that she lived in the constituency… the weblog gave information to its readers, including Ms Dorries’ constituents and party supporters, which provided a misleading impression of her arrangements as the Member of Parliament for the constituency. – Appendix 1: Memorandum from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

This MP has repeatedly used her blog to attack her critics using accusations that are entirely reliant upon her statements; i.e. where the only evidence she presents is her account of what happened where and when… the same stuff she so breezily admits is “70% fiction and 30% fact”!

2. Nadine Dorries had to account for testimony from neighbours that contradicted her account to the authorities/Commissioner (i.e. about the frequency of overnight stays at her constituency home).

Dorries complains bitterly about how long this investigation took, but one of the aspects that caused most of the delays was a series of attacks aimed at one of her neighbours that the Commissioner ruled to be irrelevant (and this is a move that’s going to seem grimly predictable to those who know how this MP operates):

170. My inquiries were also complicated and extended by Ms Dorries’ criticism of the one witness who gave evidence against her…. I regret the tone and intensity of some of Ms Dorries’ comments on the witness (not all of which I have included in the published evidence) and her attempts to persuade me not to consider that evidence… I do not believe it would have been just or fair to have taken the action suggested by Ms Dorries and refused to have accepted that neighbour’s evidence on account of the fact that he had discussed it with a newspaper reporter. – Appendix 1: Memorandum from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

Dorries said this evidence should have been rejected for another reason, too. Comedy payoff pending. Stand by.

3. Nadine Dorries had to provide evidence that she stayed more nights in what she described as her main home than she did in her constituency home.

This is the other part that caused the delay; there was (to put it kindly) some difficulty in extracting from this MP a consistent account of where she stayed most nights:

It wasn’t until 25 January 2010 that Dorries provided evidence establishing that she had spent the majority of nights in what she claimed was her main home. I urge you to follow the source link on this one to check the back-and-forth detail and the account she finally settled on for yourself, but the most telling part of it appears to be this note, under the final revision:

The Green Book states quite clearly that “Claims must be supported by documentary evidence, except where the House has agreed that such evidence is not necessary.”

In this instance, the Committee and Commissioner have agreed that the accountrepeatedly revised account of a self-confessed liar will serve in place of documentary evidence.

Some might think that’s not good enough. Some might think that the Commissioner should at least think twice before accepting the word of a liar.

Comedy payoff time… Nadine Dorries agrees:

I am aware that it is impossible for you to reasonably believe [neighbour 1] and disregard the consistent information provided by others and you may think I am over reacting to the evidence sent by [neighbour 1], however, that is not the point. I strongly object to lies being given any consideration whatsoever. – Letter to the Commissioner from Ms Nadine Dorries MP, 6 July 2010

(I had to tie up the second botched sentence with a missing ‘not’, but her intended meaning is clear, and I do not think the correction is unfair or in error.)

Nadine Dorries, who admits to lying about where she stayed and when, does not think the testimony of a liar should be accepted by the Commissioner… who then clears her on the basis of her much-revised account of where she stayed and when.

Nadine Dorries is a corrupt liar. Let her sue me if she is to maintain otherwise.

6 Responses to "Nadine Dorries is a corrupt liar"

"I often made comments on my blog in order to deliberately give the impression that I lived in the constituency. Because I didn't in fact live in the constituency, I probably went over the top." – http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011…

This is a woman who expects to be referred to as 'The Honourable"? What a dreadful person.

By mshumphreycushion October 21, 2010 - 3:02 pm

I am interested to see her travel claims for that period, if as she says, she spent most of her time in the Cotswolds, there will be very few Thameslink train ticket claims..

( p.s.. I know its legal to leave a 15 year old alone but all week so she can attend her Bedforshire school whilst you live miles away? )

From my reading of her complex exchanges with the commissioner, her daughter stayed with Nadine in her Main home, and was driven back and forth to the school in the constituency and only spend a few hours in the constituency home each day after school.

I care not a jot for her personal life and arrangements, but I cannot fathom the reason you’d send someone to school over an hours drive away unless you were spending a lot of time near the school, in which case why the all the driving back to your main home just to sleep?

Since we now know that the *majority* of her statements on her living arrangements are pure fiction, I doubt any rationalising those statements is ever going to work. Unless that 70% fiction statement was in itself a fiction…